| Rensselaer undergraduate biology student Nicole Nolan recently looked into the murky water of a fish tank here, checking on hundreds of zebra mussel larvae that she studied in the laboratories of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute.
Nolan was part of the first class of students to spend an entire “Semester of Study” at the Institute, a Rensselaer research and education facility located on the western shores of Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
Her study of the infamous invasive species was part of a full semester of research and courses that included catching and measuring fish in some of the most inaccessible lakes in the Adirondacks, releasing young pheasants to the wild, and doing real work in the lab to provide researchers at the Institute with new information on how to control damaging invasives such as zebra mussels.
“The semester of study at the Darrin Fresh Water Institute gives our students the opportunity to perform research that they often wouldn’t get the opportunity to accomplish in a traditional classroom setting and all right on the banks of one of the most beautiful lakes,” said Institute Director and Professor of Biology Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer. “They are able to earn a full semester of credits while also contributing to the preservation and understanding of some of our most vital freshwater resources and ecosystems.” Full Article
|